On Being ‘Psychic’ – the Mystery Explained

The problem with modern psychics is that they are trying to conform to a mode of expression from the late 19th century, which caught the Western imagination as belief in conventional religion stated to wane. The beliefs of psychics remain essentially those of Judeo-Christian theology, albeit existing outside of the control of mainstream Christianity (indeed, many Christian Schools view ‘psychic’ ability as a distortion, or movement away from proper Christian worship). Fuelled by a media machine that spends millions annually churning-out supposed psychic detective series, the business of reading minds, contacting deceased relatives and finding dead bodies has never been more lucrative, or popular throughout the Western world. This uncritical approach to claims and beliefs generally panders to existing ignorance, and seeks to enhance, justify and perpetuate superstitious fears and reliance upon non-logical modes of interpretation and investigation. Very seldom is science allowed into the situation, because if it is, the misconceptions (no matter how sincere they are held), are exposed for all to see, causing the assumed world of the supernatural to fall apart. This is not to say that life is without mystery, far from it, every scientific breakthrough started its theoretical life due to a lack of human knowledge with regards to a specific subject or process. As long as psychics feel the need to entertain, and continuously cater toward a ‘contact high’ with their clients, money will continue to flow, and the weak and vulnerable will seem to receive somekind of solace from the entire affair.

Being curious about all aspects of the human mind (which emerges from the brain), I have spent time researching this subject (which has included looking into my own mind). I am not religious and do not believe in Judeo-Christian theology (I also have no problem with those that do, providing they do not try to force their views on others). When I look into my mind, I do not see a spirit or a god. When I look into the material world (using objective science), I do not see a spirit or a god. However, I am aware that the mind can appear to produce what I refer to as ‘spontaneous knowledge’, and if this is taken to be what many refer to as a ‘psychic’ experience, an explanation must be sort within reason and logic, and without recourse to superstition. What do I mean by ‘spontaneous knowledge’? To me, this is a function of the mind which brings into conscious awareness disparate pieces of information that appear disconnected from the material existence of the experiencer. As the experiencer seems to have no obvious material connection to the knowledge revealed, it mistakenly seems that this information is being ‘broadcast’ from an unseen dimension, straight into the mind of the observer. I state that this assumption is incorrect. The brain – via the bodily senses – receives copious amounts of data from the environment all the time, but only allows a certain proportion of this data through to the conscious mind. I suspect that during a classic ‘psychic’ experience, all that is happening is that the brain simply releases more data into the conscious mind than would be normal. As the brain is receiving data from the environment, this data represents myriads of patterns of information which the conscious mind generally remains unaware of. When accessed to a lesser or greater degree, a psychic can appear to possess data being imported from some mysterious or outside force, but this is an illusion.

In fact, the conscious mind is receiving data from the brain, but remains ‘unaware’ of this process. As the functionality of the mind is taken-up with data-processing, it does not need to know where this data has originated. However, with the application of modern neuroscience, this process becomes clear for all to see. Where the conscious mind used to think that a god or a spirit was ‘mysteriously’ importing information into its awareness, we now know that it is the brain that is transmitting data into its mind-function. This suggests that this mystery has now been solved. Armed with this knowledge, an ordinary human being can enhance their own understanding of what is happening in their brain-mind nexus, and seek-out ever more efficient ways of processing internalised environmental information. This does not deny the presence of ‘qualia’ or ‘mind activity’, but does offer an insight into how the inner life is affected and conditioned by outer events, and how the outer world can be manipulated, organised and changed through human endeavour motivated through conscious understanding. In the meantime, those trapped within the superstitious ‘psychic’ industry will continue to believe in gods and spirits, and falsely assume that their own brain activity is happening somewhere else outside of their own head. This reality explains why those who try to prove a supernatural origin to ‘spontaneous knowledge’ are never successful.